Rediscovering America: Why African Leader Tours Benefit U.S. Foreign Policy

November 18, 2020

In 1959, the U.S. government treated Guinean president Sékou Touré to an impressive show of U.S. diplomacy. As recounted by U.S. Ambassador to Guinea John Morrow, President Touré was brought on a 14-day trip across the United States that included a dinner hosted by President Eisenhower in his honor, a meeting with then-senator John F. Kennedy at Disneyland, a tour of an aluminum plant in Ohio, and a New York City ticker tape parade after which he received a key to the city.

This whirlwind approach to African leader visits to the United States has been lost to history. Instead of exposure to U.S. ingenuity, diversity, and history, most visiting African heads of state and government encounter fairly routine meetings in Washington and New York during the UN General Assembly, often at levels far below the president and secretary of state. There have been episodic trips to meet with diaspora communities or local chambers of commerce, such as Congolese president Tshisekedi’s trip to Atlanta in 2019 and Kenyan president Kenyatta’s visit to Dallas in 2014, but they are exceedingly rare. These visits might result in a nice photo op, but they are insufficient in an era of global competition.

The United States needs to dust off and update a forgotten playbook to strengthen its ties with African governments, advance its policy agenda of increased U.S.-Africa trade and investment, and recommit to shared democratic values. It should revive a proud practice of serving as a tour guide for African counterparts, escorting them to witness U.S. innovation at Texas Tech University and California State University, Fresno, to engage city officials and business leaders in Tucson and Sioux City, and to experience U.S. history at Colonial Williamsburg and in Honolulu.

Why Touring America Works

In a period where U.S. engagements are episodic and low-level and U.S. diplomats are told to do more with less, there is an alluring precedent for how to be “creative” with limited resources and concretely showcase U.S. strengths. The return of the American tour has the potential to roll out the red carpet—often literally—and show off the best of U.S. enterprise and innovation.

• These diplomatic trips outside the Beltway promised some pomp and circumstance sorely missed in official Washington itineraries, often with local flair that deepens an understanding of U.S. politics and forges lasting impressions. When Chadian president Francois Tombalbaye visited Lubbock, Texas, he was the guest of honor at a college football match. The band struck up Chad’s national anthem and the student section held up colored pieces of cardboard to represent the country’s flag, bringing tears to Tombalbaye's eyes.

• Diplomatic visits sell the American model, connecting an African leader with the history and culture that underpin U.S. dynamism. Touré’s itinerary included stops at Arlington National Cemetery (a nod to the struggle for liberty) and Disneyland (an iconic symbol of U.S. capitalism), while Somali prime minister Mohamed Egal and Ghanaian head of state General Joseph Ankrah visited NASA at Cape Canaveral (a testament to U.S. innovation). The most powerful were engagements with the civil rights movement, which resonated deeply with African independence leaders; in 1977, Tanzanian president Julius Nyerere visited the grave of Martin Luther King, Jr. in Atlanta.

• Trips beyond Washington and New York City also are opportunities for African officials to view U.S. industry, create business relationships, and see the U.S. economic model in action. In 1961, Nigerian prime minister Abubakar Tafawa Balewa toured the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) in Knoxville and later expressed interest in the TVA as a model for his own public works program. President Maurice Yameogo, the first leader of Upper Volta (now Burkina Faso), landed in Fresno, California, in 1965, where the mayor and the local chamber of commerce greeted the president and arranged for visits to a dairy ranch, feed lot, and cotton oil company.

The Costs of Inaction

A failure to reimagine official visits by African leaders will mark a missed opportunity to boost stagnant trade and investment, reinvigorate cultural ties with the United States, and compete with U.S. adversaries who are more apt to shower African counterparts with high-level attention. A stubborn refusal to evolve will lay bare the fact that recent U.S. presidents, unlike their predecessors, meet with a small percentage of visiting African leaders and rarely host receptions, which were once commonplace.

• U.S. trade with the region has remained stuck at around 2 percent of all U.S. foreign investment. Despite promising new initiatives from the Trump administration, such as Prosper Africa and the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation, the United States has to do more to persuade U.S. companies to invest in the region. The standard playbook—visits to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, U.S. Corporate Council on Africa, or Business Roundtable, all based in Washington, D.C.—has not moved the needle far or fast enough.


• The culminative effect of travel bans, derogatory statements, and potential barriers to higher education have taken a toll on U.S.-African relations. Since 1960, no U.S. president in his first term has met with fewer African leaders in the Oval Office than President Trump. Not only are diplomatic trips to the United States an opportunity to revamp the U.S. image with African counterparts, they are also an opening for U.S. diplomats to share why Africa matters with fellow citizens. According to the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, only 1 percent of Americans regarded Africa as the most important region to U.S. national security interests in early 2020.

• The United States has fallen behind its adversaries in its courtship of African counterparts. It has been six years since the first and only U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit, and there have only been three secretary of state visits to Africa—far fewer than in the first terms of President Obama or President Bush. In contrast, Russia held a summit with African leaders in Sochi in 2019, and China continues to stage its triannual Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC). While in China, African leaders visit the Great Wall of China and the Forbidden City as well as tour industrial parks, manufacturing sites, and universities and research centers.

A New Travel Itinerary for the Twenty-first Century

While the pandemic paused diplomatic travel, the United States has an opportunity to reimagine its planning of official visits and return to a remarkable legacy of escorting African leaders across the country once travel restrictions lift. This is not necessarily a costly exercise for the U.S. government. The most important factors are commitment, vision, and creativity on the part of those facilitating the visit—whether that be African governments, U.S. diplomats, local officials, or industry leaders. As a recent example, former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe journeyed across the United States in 2015, stopping in Boston, Washington, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. During his 48 hours in Silicon Valley, Abe marketed the Japanese bullet train to then-governor Jerry Brown of California and was feted by the executives of leading tech firms, like Facebook, Google, and Tesla. If Disneyland, Cape Canaveral, and the Tennessee Valley Authority were frequent stops in the 1960s and 1970s, the United States should identify new cities and locations that capture U.S. achievements, as well as current challenges to convey a more balanced portrait.

• Showcase U.S. Entrepreneurship. U.S. diplomats should increase the number of reverse trade missions and facilitate African leader visits to other U.S. cities to challenge stereotypes about investment in Africa and spur new deals. In addition to the already popular Silicon Valley, the research triangle in North Carolina or Phoenix’s suburbs, where Waymo is testing its driverless cars, are potential stops. On the way, U.S. industry executives can use their platforms to elevate African nations as promising investments. In 2015, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg engaged Indian prime minister Narendra Modi on the intersection between internet connectivity, foreign policy, and development at a Town Hall interview at Facebook’s headquarters. With Facebook and Google identifying Africa as the new frontier of consumerism and innovation, they serve as important voices to educate Americans about African tech growth through public engagements with African leaders.

• Introduce a Country in Transition. A series of engagements with U.S. activists, innovators, and everyday citizens who are confronting charged sociopolitical issues could resonate with African leaders and publics. Witnessing urban renewal in Detroit; police reform in Camden, New Jersey; clean energy in Pittsburgh; or climate change mitigation in Miami could facilitate candid exchanges on lessons learned. During the Cold War, civil rights icons, such as Malcom X, engaged with African leaders over their common struggle for basic rights. The killing of George Floyd prompted many African publics to ask hard questions about racism and race relations in the United States. An official trip to engage with this new generation, which some credit for inspiring similar protests across Africa, as well as exposure to U.S. civil rights history, may further strengthen the bonds between the United States and Africa.

• Tap U.S. Star Power. A trip to Los Angeles and other cultural hotspots to meet with film and music executives is a natural choice due to growing interest in African creative industries. U.S. film studios, publishing houses, and record labels understand this dynamic, churning out African content, including Black Panther, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Americanah, and Beyoncé’s Lion King soundtrack. It also showcases the United States’ diversity and underscores the deep ties between U.S. and African cultures. Zambian president Kenneth Kaunda, for instance, used James Brown’s 1970 tour to bolster Kaunda’s “reputation with young Black Zambians,” according to historian Andrew DeRoche. During these visits, U.S. diplomats or local officials could broker introductions to leading U.S. film, music, and dance stars, many of whom have been very active in #ZimbabweanLivesMatter and #EndSARS social media campaigns.

• Engage Local U.S. Officials. As U.S. government senior leader meetings have become more infrequent, it is advantageous to leverage the collective bandwidth offered by governors, senators, and representatives. These local officials have potential to amplify diplomatic messaging and serve as a bridge to the country’s economic, cultural, and political offerings. President Touré, for example, was courted by state governors and Kennedy during his U.S. travels. Chicago mayor Richard Daley named Ghanaian prime minister Kwame Nkrumah an honorary citizen. To stage a successful visit, bureaucrats can work with and strengthen sister cities, a long tradition between the United States and African counterparts with symbolic, but underutilized, programs.

• Capture Buzzworthy Experiences. The United States should work with U.S. and African media to ensure wide coverage of visits. During the 1960s and 1970s, the U.S. Information Service made short films detailing a leader’s trip to the United States. U.S. public affairs officers should work with in-house media production teams, as well as U.S. and African influencers, to promote these trips on social media, radio, and in local papers. As a corollary, it is imperative for the State Department to do more than issue staid embassy statements, and it would be worthwhile to invest in better search engine optimization to enable an increasingly tech-savvy region to interact with, react to, and share these engagements.

Judd Devermont is the director of the Africa Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington, D.C. Catherine Chiang is a former research associate with the CSIS Africa Program.

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